NEST
Network Embedded Systems Technology

Overview

Our NEST project lasted from the summer of 2001 till the end of 2005. We have developed many
middleware services, tools and applications. Most of these are available for download
and are well documented.

Our most recent results is in the area of sensor node localization. The Radio Interferometric Positioning System
has the potential to revolutionize node deployment because both its range and accuracy is an order of magnitude
better than those of other aproaches.

The Flooding Time Synchronization Protocol (FTSP) is one of the most widely used time sync services for motes. Its accuracy
is in the few-microsecond range, while its overhead is small. Our most recent time synchronization work resulted in the
Routing Integrated Time Sycnhronization, an implicit service with zero message overhead, and the Rapid Time Synchronization service that
can provide a network-wide global virtual time in a few seconds after bootup.

We have developed different tools to support middleware
and application development for sensor networks. GRATIS provides a graphical environment for the model-based development of TinyOS applications.
TinyDT is an Eclipse-based IDE for TinyOS.

Finally, we have developed a prototype shooter localization system utilizing a sensor network.
The localization accuracy of the system in open terrain is competitive with that of existing
centralized countersniper systems. However, our sensor network-based solution surpasses
the traditional approach in urban environments because it can mitigate multi-path effects by utilizing
a large number of simultaneous measurements at different locations. For more information, please
visit our applications page.